Participants at the Tehran meeting (MEHR)
June 20, 2007 -- Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said Russia sees no threat from Iran's ballistic missiles. Lavrov said he does not understand why the United States needs to cite an Iranian threat in order to justify setting up its missile shield in Europe.

Russia has vigorously opposed Washington's plans to set up a missile-defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic.

Lavrov was speaking in Tehran, after a meeting of foreign ministers from the five Caspian Sea states -- Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan.

The one-day meeting ended without any agreement on the sea's new legal status. The Caspian Sea status has been in dispute among the five littoral states for more than fifteen years.